"Selective Amnesia"

“Selective Amnesia”

 

From time to time people who have offended us may come to apologize and ask for our forgiveness. When this happens we may tell them to forget it. But is this what we really mean? Maybe not. Translated, we could be saying, “You can forget it but I won’t! I’ll let it go this time but I’m filing it away for future reference to clobber you with if you blow it again!” No wonder we find it so hard to talk with a brother or sister in the spirit of Matthew 18:15 (“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.”).

While we can’t erase our minds, granting forgiveness means we no longer hold a person’s misdeeds against him or her. In a practical vein, this tells us we’re not to dwell on the wrongdoing. However, a real danger of selective amnesia is present whereby we pick and choose what we’re willing to put behind us and what we’re not. When this happens, the other person lives in fear of our retaliation and we in anticipation of evening the score. This is hardly the stuff of which solid relationships are made.

In a study guide for Hebrews it’s pointed out that “…an omniscient God has amnesia when it comes to our sins.” This may sound strange, but in Jeremiah 31:34 God says, “…I will remember their sins no more.” Since I have wronged God far more than anyone has me who am I to harbor a grocery list of grievances against another when He’s forgotten about my offenses towards Him once they’re confessed (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”—1 John 1:9)?

Are you plagued by selective amnesia (as I have been at times)? If so, we must give these things to God, trust His Spirit to work in all concerned, and reaffirm that our lives show the world that we belong to Jesus (“A new commandment I give you: Love one another….By this all…will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”—John 13:34-35).

 

Grace and Blessings!

 

Jim McMillan